Bar Mills Tribute Kit 1

[Mark Dalrymple]

Top notch, George.

Cheers, Mark.

[Opa George]

Thank you, everyone, for the kind comments on the Symphonium office and warehouse. Next up is the fabrication shop, identified in the kit as Link and Chain. Instead of three separate industries, I will construct them as separate buildings all part of the same concern: Seaside Symphonium & Nickelodeon Company.

Below are the major wall parts laid out. Just out of the picture is the die-cut cardboard roof and detail pieces. This is a "before" picture. I then began adding texture and wood/siding detail with various implements. I'll bypass an "after" picture because those details won't photograph well, plus, I am not done. I am thinking this building will be even more beat up than the first, and am ruminating on additional stressing of the walls.

More later!
--George

[Dave K.]

Beautiful job on the first structure, George. You're gonna have a great complex, here.👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[Opa George]

Thank you, Dave!
Today not a lot of new work, but important work. All walls are fully braced, and I assembled the foundation frame. Like the first structure, this foundation frame will have an overlay, but this time of brick instead of a stone wall. By way of a tip, I would caution anyone to very carefully identify the foundation frame pieces before assembly. There is a front (the piece is marked "F") and a rear ("R") piece, and if you get them reversed, the offset will not line up with the side wall.


I dry-fit the walls together and did a trial fit over the foundation. Everything looked good except for one corner which required me to trim back one piece of bracing. Trimming accomplished and it all fit together nicely. I recommend checking all clearances before getting the glue involved.

--Opa George

[Lynnb]

I know what you mean with bracing getting off a bit, putting the brace with glue is too easy and too much glue tends to make the brace slide, happens to me anyway.

[Opa George]

My grandsons came for the weekend while my daughter and son-in-law celebrated a wedding anniversary. So not a lot of progress on the kit (but we sure rocked the Legos, I can tell you!).

Anyway--I did get the walls painted to match the first building. I want all three structures to look like they were built about the same time, and more importantly have suffered a neglect of paint for a similar time. Below are the painted walls, with a few of the die-cut wooden freight doors assembled but not yet installed. The wooden doors will undergo some light weathering and an alcohol and ink wash, then dry-brushed white to match the walls.


To the upper left is the brick foundation. I'm not entirely satisfied with the color yet. It is etched taskboard, and this is one of my first experiences working with the material. It doesn't take color in the same way as wood, and my usual brick color: a Rustoleum rattle can of "Paprika" looks too orange. On wood and metal it looks like old, sun-bleached brick. On taskboard it just looks orange, even after a wash of off-white for mortor. I will experiment with dry-brushing a darker shade of red over the face of the bricks.

I continue to dry-fit pieces together, and can report that everything fits nicely.  A well-designed kit so far.
--Opa George

[rpdylan]

Enjoyong your build thread George, really nice work. Are you priming the task board? I have also found that materials such as task board take paint differently so I hit them with my gray primer first

[Opa George]

Thanks, Bob. Yes, in fact I did prime first with Rustoleum flat white primer. My idea was that the white primer would serve as the mortar lines and I could lightly brush the face of the bricks with my desired brick color(s). But the spray paint stayed more on the face of the bricks and did not penetrate to the deeper mortar lines, causing me to apply a second, heavier coat, which probably had the effect on my finish coat mentioned above.

To be fair, Artie did warn about this in the instructions, cautioning that the taskboard soaks up paint like a sponge. He recommended sparing coats of paint.

After posting above, I went back and dry-brushed with acrylic brick red, and now have an acceptable brick wall.  I will probably go back and lighten it with some chalks when I do my final work on the structure. 

I also note you can teach this old dog a new trick or two.  There is another taskboard brick piece that surrounds a huge chimney or furnace pipe that comes out of the side wall.  That is designed as a highlight of this particular structure and I certainly did not want to mess it up, so I approached it differently. I first sprayed with Rustoleum colonial red (combination primer/paint), and it looks great. I will add mortar lines after the paint cures today.  Pics later today after work!

Cheers all!--Opa George

[jerryrbeach]

George,


Looking good.  I'm still following along with this build.

[vinceg]

Yes, George -- loving this. I expect to be building this kit before too long so I really appreciate the trail blazing you're doing.

[Opa George]

Jerry--thanks for the support along the way.  Vince--I'm happy to share this build and am having a great time with it.

Below are the fabrication shop ("Link & Chain" in the kit) walls with paint and some of the freight doors, vents, and etc installed. I'm finally happy with the color of the brickwork. You can see the brick wall that embeds in the wooden wall as a firesafe surrounding the boiler pipe exhaust. No windows installed yet. I sprayed the back sides of the walls with black primer and am waiting for it to fully dry.


I took a picture of the recolored taskboard brick foundation, but it was a little blurry. You can see the edge of it in the upper left. It too, came out ok. Next up will be adding windows, glazing, and some other wall details while still flat.
--George

[deemery]

I tried spray shellac on a Bar Mills kit, it worked pretty well to seal everything before painting.


dave

[Opa George]

I tried spray shellac on a Bar Mills kit, it worked pretty well to seal everything before painting.

dave

Thanks, Dave. I may try that with the next kit, particularly if there is a lot of cardboard / taskboard components. --George

[Opa George]

So here are the walls of the fabrication building with windows installed and glazed. No shades yet, or other detailing on the walls. The furnace wall shows the plate from which the furnace pipe exits, in place. The large furnace pipe is lying on the wall ready for installation. Not pictured (paint still drying) is a two-part bracket.


Here is a shot of the brick foundation that gave me color trouble. I am satisfied with the base color now. Still need to dirty it up. You can see the original orange color on the internal bracing and alignment tabs, with which I was so unhappy.


The furnace wall is described in the instructions as the "coolest part of the kit," and I agree, at least so far. Jack Ellis designed it and it is full of character, even in this early stage. Lots of weathering and fine detailing to add yet, but you get the idea. Two shots below:


On this angle I increased the fill light to show more detail, and that threw off the color. The first angle shows a truer color.


Taking a tip from multiple other users, I did not rely on the peel-and-stick feature of these components, but used wood glue and cyanoacrylate.

--George

[ACL1504]

George,

Great job, in fact excellent job on the walls, windows and doors. Peel and stick works well for your after "I voted" sticker but not in kit building.


The look of the bricks is wonderful.

Tom